Takaki Chpt. 13

 

 1. If the New Deal did not worked out for African Americans why wasn’t it changed in order to fit all?

 The New Deal offered very little support to blacks. It looked as if its priority was to help whites and later on the blacks. The N.D. federal programs focused on providing help to people in distress forced blacks to take a step back; it offered higher wages for white farmers and workers. There was nothing that could protect and help blacks in the workplace; no higher wages and no stop to discrimination.

 

 

2. When blacks started to migrate to the North did they really expected that their life would be better there?

 They traveled to the North in order to escape the life that they had back South. Hoping for a new beginning, family, decent job and some kind of social equality or acceptance did not come easily. Blacks entered workforce and were hired, as well as being offered good money and housing, but later on everything ended. The discrimination that they had to deal with waited for them everywhere. They lost their job, faced homelessness and hunger. One thing that seems that they had an advantage over was the elections; because of the large number of black population they had 157 electoral votes in the northern states. 

 

 

3. Why DuBois did introduce “voluntary segregation”?

 DuBois introduced the “voluntary segregation” in order for the blacks to survive. Since blacks were battered economically and politically this kind of segregation would be best for both sides. Fighting for integration came to be a long and hard issue to conquer, so easier solution would be if blacks would segregate and create their own “economic nation within a nation”. They should open and buy only a Negro owned stares that are being supplied with a Negro made and produced products. DuBois want a “cooperative and socialistic state” which in my opinion was a pretty good idea, because then the whites would loose a lot if the blacks would not buy from them, I think that similar thing would happen during the elections.

Zheng He

1) The purpose of Zheng He voyage was to go and make the manifest of the transforming power of virtue and treat people with kindness. I am not very sure but would that be something of trade or trying to make pece with some of the barbaric countries that they have to visit?

2) A tribute would consist of giving someone, in this case the emperor of China things that have value, great importance and are rare. One of such things was a giraffe sent to the emperor from Africa.

  3) The account of the voyage is written down on a stele at the temple to the goddes the Celestial Spouse at Changle in Fujian province in 1431.

4) Other perspective of Eastern Africa can be found in Ibn Battutah, Fei Xin’s,  and Duarte Barbosa.

5)The city of Mecca is mentioned in  Ibn Battutah and Fei Xin, they are probably related by the trade routes and religious reasons.

6) The political authority is represented by, however I am not very sure, by the father-in-law and the elder’s. the elders have gifts brought to them, and in the case of father-in-law, the son-in-law has to agree to whatever the father-in-law says in order for him to

7) The goods that were traded to and from East coast of Africa were onion, garlic, dired fruits, gold, silver, satins, silk, rice, beans and china-ware, pepper, sandal-wood, coloured taffetas, fish, etc.

Tocqueville introduction

In the itroduction the author writes about a new political system that is needed in America. He says that “a new political science is needed for a totally new world”; in which he refers to democracy. The political system or Democracy is needed in America because it is a new country that needs to be governed by itself. Democracy, somehow existed in America, but it was not defined or brought into progress at that time.  Later on, the author says all the things that are needed for the government to function well and be obeyed by the people. And at the end the author states that the main point of writing this book was because of America’s democracy and how it will look in the future.

Two weeks in wilderness

The author comes to america to see and learn about the land and its people. He wants to see the real Native population, but gets disappointed when he sees that everyone becomes americanized. The natives no longer dress in their clothing, rather they wear the things that they receive from the americans. They also drink alcohol and have weapons like guns from the Americans (however, I am not very sure about that). The land has also change. Under the power and colonization, people cut down most of the forest in order to have space and materials needed to build towns and villages. However, he is also impressed by the wilderness in a way that there is a lot of old trees and plants that die but are still holding strong; and make way for the new “generations” to grow and cover the earth. The author is also very negative abou the American society. He sees it as a one society ratehr than many. This is why, I think, he prefers Europe because it consists of many countries and nations, making it more interesting and diverse, rater than one society that thinks and acts in the same way.  

Battutah, March 26

Battutah enters the capital of Dihli and goes directly to the sultans court. Battutah stayed in Dihli for some time and received a graet hospitality form the sultan; a mansion and everything that he needed. While in Dihli Battutah is informed that his daughter has died and because of that he send some slave girls for her burial (however, I do not understand why he did not go himselve?). He is alos mentioning some rituals and things that people bring to the funerals; he talks about putting shoes of the dead on their head. One thing that seems interesting to me is the sittuation when Battutah owned some money to some merchants. He did not have any money to pay back, so he came up with the idea of writing a ode for the sultan, in which he praised him. The sultan liked it and gave him the money needed to regulate his debt. Battutah was also asked by the sultan to go to China as his ambassador and is supplied with whatever he needs for that journey.

Battutah, chp.6-8

Continuing his travel, Battutah visits many town and cities on his way to India. An interesting thing about his travel is that wherever he goes hi is being welcomed very generously by the people. However, not just any people from like lower class, rather the middle to upper class society; like the sultan. He is always invited fro a meal or to pray together, and is given many generous and expensive gifts, even the ones that he asks for. As he describes his travels and the way that people treat him, we can see that he is being liked.

Battutah also describes the different cultures that he encounters as he starts to move further away from his own culture, as well as their rituals, and traditions. some of them are the killing of animals and eating them, or when he witnessed women being burned. His reactions seem like he is interested but also disturbed by those issues.

I think that as Battutah travels even further from his own surrounding his identity will start to change more, or at least be influenced greatly by the people, sittuations and all the things that he will encounter. And as for now, I am supprised by how lucky Battutah is when he meets new people. It seems strange that he would be offered such a great hospitality from starngers who he does not know anything about and vice versa.

Battutah, chp. 4-5

Battutah arrives at Baghdad. He praises it as the most magnificent of all the cities and places. In Baghdad there is a sultan who lost his son, and Battutah is told to attend the funeral service, however he does not want to go; instead he is forced to attend it. This is starnge for me because he seems to be liked by all the people in places that he visits, and in here he is welcomed and cared for and pays back with such a disrespect. Battutah should show the same hospitality as people are showing to him.

As he travels, he will start to encounter customs that are different from his andthat will start to influence his identity. It would be good if he would start to do the things that are being done in the cities and towns that he visits; treating it as showing respect and understanding to other cultures, and not thinking of it as shameless.

Ibn Fadlan and the Rusiyyah

 

 

In the Translation the author describes the identities of people called Rusiyyah. The Rus are considered as an ‘elite merchant-pirates’. They go from place to place on ships, and settle on the river banks by building wooden houses in which they live in tens, twenties or more. Each one of the merchants owns a couch on which he sits, and is accompanied by a beautiful slave girl. Their culture or customs are rather interesting and disturbing at the same time. For instance, one man will have an intercourse with his slave girl while the rest of the men look, or they will all do this in front of each other. The Rus are also very dirty. They do not wash themselves, or if they do they all use the same water bath in which they spit, blow their nose, etc.

Every time they go out to sell something, they do a ritual in front of sacred statues; that are important to them; to ask for a good fortune in selling their merchandise. They pray and name all the merchandise that they have brought for the Lord. Then they depart, however, they keep coming back to the Lord until they have a good sale. Their identities, their customs seem to be influenced by some sort of belief. They do things, like sacrifices. In which when a merchant dies his slave, usually the slave girl, has do join him. She is given alcohol and is then killed by the Angel of Death. The merchant’s body and the body of the slave girl are being put on a ship along with some sort of offerings, let out on the sea and burned. It is done so because then they enter the paradise sooner, by being carried by the wind.

The Rusiyyah all believe and follow the same ‘code’. They travel in groups and do the things that any one of their ethnicity would do. They live like pirates, without wives or families; their fellow travelers are their family. They are being described as barbarians, without good manners or an idea of what to do when they get old. Where will they live and what else can they do to support themselves?

 

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!